Gun, drugs linked to man, police say

July 06, 2001|By John Flink.

WINTHROP HARBOR — Police on Thursday seized marijuana and a handgun from the safe-deposit box of a 49-year-old Zion man arrested last week on charges ranging from child pornography to counterfeiting, authorities said.

Richard Ganeff, of the 2600 block of Elisha Avenue, was being held in Lake County Jail Thursday on $100,000 bond.

Police said they pulled Ganeff over for allegedly speeding on Sheridan Road in Winthrop Harbor last week. His car's registration sticker turned out to be a photocopy of someone else's registration, said Winthrop Harbor Police Detective Tim Borowski.

A search of Ganeff's car turned up an expandable baton like those used by police, a sidearm pellet gun, marijuana and two packages of blue-stained paper money, police said. Investigators also found child pornography in Ganeff's possession, they said.

U.S. Secret Service agents determined that the money was counterfeit, authorities said. Zion police who searched Ganeff's home said they found additional counterfeit bills, marijuana, handgun ammunition, forged vehicle insurance documents and hundreds of pornographic pictures of children.

Ganeff told police he stole the pellet gun during a 1998 burglary in Zion, Borowski said. The serial number had been filed off the 0.45-caliber Ruger handgun found in a safe-deposit box in a Chicago bank Thursday, Borowski said. Altering the serial number on a firearm is a federal offense.

Borowski said police recovered about 15 grams of marijuana and $17,000 in counterfeit bills, some of it poorly printed, from Ganeff's home.

Police from Winthrop Harbor and Zion worked with agents from the Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms on the case.